He smiles. "Yes, they really should've sent you to talk to Felix. I don't think you ever got in actual danger from being vengefully thundered into the ground. What do you think we can do about these places?"

"Some of them just shouldn't get magic, or should get magic you can cut off immediately when they start misusing it. Some of them as long as there's a convenient way to send fish-people somewhere better they'll cooperate with the extraction of fish-people just fine."

"That should be enough. I really hope we can get magic that helps us with the selection process."

"Yeah, most ways of doing that require either magic or the ability to project credible force and I think it'll be a problem if you try to go the second route."

Nod nod. "I don't suppose you know anyone that makes you think 'his soul should be represented by something telepathic'?"

"Aitim. I'm not sure what you're imagining mindreading gets you, since lots of the problem here is - ways the dimension might be unexpectedly dangerous, or situations where we don't mean to use it for war but then someone goes to war with us and are we supposed to just not use it..."

"I wasn't being serious. I didn't even expect a name, actually."

"Well, it so happens that I have a cousin who is as blue as they come - temperamentally, I mean, not genetically - and if his dimension doesn't give him telepathy I'll eat my hat. Though it also seems like it might be one that creates people very readily."

"Okay, I am at least... impressed by him, I suppose. I am going to let the dreamed up voucher decide if he is worth the trouble. And get Felix to make you an edible hat in case we go through it."

"He doesn't want to be one of the earliest ones, because we can't afford for anything to happen to him, but yeah, once things are in motion and a bit stabler."

"Okay-"

Their pocket everythings start frenetically beeping e-mail alerts.

...Isel checks hers.

The first e-mail reads:

Please do not kill the red dreamshaper! I figured out a way to prevent dreamshapers from using their magic! There is a shareable knowledge based magic from my world! It can keep people awake without harming them! The red dreamshaper can just not use! Please. Please. Please. Do not kill them. I think if you reply to me I can manage reading the e-mail through magic. Please don't kill the red dreamshaper!

The other e-mails are similar in content. With varied levels of desperation.

Hey Felix. I'm Isel, I'm Anitam's reds person. We're not going to kill him but that magic sounds like a great idea.

He sends an e-mail that is just:

red will not die.

Short messages should help with using magic to read it. The pocket everythings are still beeping. He puts his it aside.

"I think it's going to take sometime until Felix can reply back." He takes a deep breath. "So, the good news is that I won't need to convince him of our plan to create a voucher person. The bad news is that the only way he is going to appeal to witchcraft is... he decided to create a person himself. An... edited person, so he can trust with witchcraft magic."

"...okay. He's got a plan to house all the people, I hope?"

He gives her an unimpressed look. "Felix can make a city worth of pocket dimension every night. He can trivially house the voucher and... the witch." He sighs and rubs his temples. "This is going to be bad for him though."

"For Felix?"

Nod. "I know it's none of your business but... it's pretty much all of mine. So I care."

"Why does making people make him unhappy, exactly?"

"He feels responsible. His people come... they always come such that they like him and it feels unearned, unfair and mind-control-y. He can't help but think it reflects some negative quality of him, but I think that is... they always come knowing Felix and if you know him well-enough you like him. I admit it's ambiguous enough. And he really dislikes editing them. ...The magic can provide something like randomly generated individuals without your input, editing amounts to taking the person's metaphorical blueprints and changing them at your convenience. And I am certain that he would only agree to create someone with mind-affecting witchcraft if he edited the person to be really trustworthy with it."

"Well. At least the kid is okay."

"Yeah." Sigh. "Please, get him the best therapist on the planet. Well, Anitam, because of immigration thing. A major benefit of the voucher plan was that I came up with it."

"He will have a really fantastic therapist, promise."